Share Video
Giants manager Gabe Kapler suggested earlier this month that Moronta (shoulder) will be given the opportunity to compete for the closer's role in spring training, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports. "We challenged him to come to camp in his peak physical condition, we challenged him to come to camp dedicating himself to potentially being an important late-inning, high-leverage reliever for us," Kapler said of Moronta. "He's going to have opportunities to take control of a role like that. We'll see what he looks like in spring training, and if he steps up to the plate and emerges as that guy we're going to be really excited about it."
Moronta missed the entire 2020 campaign while rehabbing from shoulder surgery, but he displayed good velocity in his late-season throwing sessions at the Giants' alternate site, putting him on track to enter the spring without any restrictions. The Giants are expected to have a number of arms competing for the ninth-inning gig in the spring, but Moronta probably offers the most traditional closer profile of any reliever currently on the roster. Largely on the strength of his upper-90s fastball and a sharp slider, Moronta has struck out 29.8 percent of the batters he's faced over his three seasons in the big leagues.
